A former executive at Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. formally entered a plea deal in federal court Friday.
Ex-human relations head Nancy Tullos, 56, agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice and to cooperate with an ongoing probe into stock options backdating at the chipmaker.
Tullos was charged with instructing a subordinate to delete an e-mail that contained evidence of backdating by Broadcom senior executives and board members, according to an Associated Press report.
Tullos is set to go to court to face charges on Monday. She could be sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison, the report said. She’s likely to see a much lighter punishment for pledging to work with prosecutiors in their probe.
The plea deal increases the pressure on Broadcom cofounder and former chief executive Henry “Nick” Nicholas and former chief financial officer Bill Ruehle, who themselves are under federal investigations.
Broadcom took charges of more than $2 billion to past earnings as a result of the backdating, more than any of the some 200 companies who were investigated for options manipulation.
Securities and Exchange Commission filings made in January showed that an internal review by Broadcom found “significant responsibility” for improperly backdated stock options with Nicholas.
The audit also found that other executives, including Tullos, also held responsibility.
Tullos left Broadcom in October 2004, a year after Nicholas stepped down.
Broadcom’s shares fell more than 3% in afternoon New York trading on a recent market value of about $15 billion.
